Six security essentials to secure your business over Christmas

It’s that time of year again when we all look forward to shutting up shop and locking the doors and shutters to spend time with our nearest and dearest. But in our haste to start the Christmas festivities it can be easy to forget to secure our business premises. So I’ve put together a few essential security tips to make sure your new year starts with merriment, not misadventure.

1.      Walking the walk

The walk test: such an important test to do and so simple to undertake. We actually send our customers a reminder letter at the beginning of every November as a nudge to keep it on their radar. This is because many companies will go through an entire year without setting their security alarm until it comes to Christmas Eve and it’s only then that they realise there’s a fault or a problem. A simulated lock up in advance of the Christmas break will stop that happening.

We’d advise conducting a walk test at least one month before the festive shut down so you have time to call in your security company to do fault finding and repairs if you discover the system isn’t working properly.

A walk test is so simple, all you have to do is arm your alarm system and walk past every detector within the building (or buildings). If the system is working properly the alarm panel will beep to let you know that it has detected you and knows you’re there.

We also do something very similar for the CCTV system, but as a business owner or manager, you could perform it perfectly well yourself without having to schedule a site visit. Again, arm the system, phone the remote monitoring station to advise them of what you’re doing and then walk past each camera. The operator at the monitoring station will confirm that you’ve been detected and seen on every camera if the system is working as it should.

If you haven’t done your walk test by now, we’d highly recommend that it becomes a priority before the break, otherwise your business may be left vulnerable. If you’ve never done it before – give us a call we’d be happy to help.

2.      Are you connected?

You can do this while you’re performing your walk test by simply checking the remote connection on your phone or device to make sure it’s ‘talking’ to your security system. A poor or broken connection can cause all sorts of headaches so it’s worth adding it to your list of security tasks.

3.      When access all areas is bad

You don’t want people who are up to no good over Christmas having easy access to your business. If you have automated gates or barriers that aren’t in frequent use, please test them to check that they close and secure on their own. If you’re not completely happy with how they are performing when you’ve done the test, get in touch with our in-house automated gates engineers who will be able to share their expertise with you.

4.      Throw some light on the situation

Lighting is a huge deterrent and lights are available now with timers so they come on automatically at certain times. They can also be managed through an app-based system. If nothing else, it looks like someone is on site throughout the night. Also, make sure that any motion detector lights on the exterior of the building are in good working order (if you did your walk test when it’s dark you could incorporate this then).

5.      Secure the perimeter

Another walk check. Your final check should be the perimeter. Walk your grounds to check that the fence line is secure and that there are no holes or sections missing before you lock the gates and go home.

6.      Sometimes it’s good to leave the doors open

But only when it comes to your vehicles! It might seem like an obvious thing to say, but please don’t leave loaded vehicles in the yard over the Christmas period. You can almost guarantee that when you return in January the goods will have gone. As an extra measure it’s worth leaving vehicle rear doors open to show they’re empty.

We’re here if you need us

Our offices will be shut from 23^rd December until 4^th January but don’t worry, we have engineers on standby throughout that period to respond to any emergencies you might have with your security system, CCTV or your gates and barriers. Please do get in touch if you have any problems.

In the meantime, I hope you have a great Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Dave Salisbury, Managing Director, Zicam Integrated Security Limited.

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